Light candles now,
In your home
For the homeless.
For the displaced
With no place
They can afford;
For the first peoples
Whose lands and cultures
Were stolen or degraded;
For the animals
Invading your backyards.
How dare they walk where they once lived;
For those on islands
Swamped by the rising water,
Ocean where there once was land;
For those who survived a shooting,
There is no more safety,
It is lost forever;
For the addicted whose illness
Destroys their true selves
While the greedy make money;
For the warred upon and bombed out,
Starving and hopeless,
Not even a tent to sleep in;
For the houses and habitats
Burnt up in climate change’s fires,
And everything gone;
For the immigrants,
Losing the old lands to violence and poverty
And so violently unwelcome in the new.
Where
Will they
Light their candles now?
This is our covenant:
Take care of the earth
And it will take care of you.
So It Is Upon Us to—
Build housing;
Make reparations;
Preserve wilderness;
End fossil fuels;
Restrict guns;
Treat addiction;
Cease fire;
Live sustainably;
Welcome immigrants.
Create new homes
And save the old ones.
Light candles, Now.
Amen
